CONFIDENTIAL
7.
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
we are tightening up on port controls covering the fishing fleet and the armada of small vessels in and around Hong Kong. This will be a long term operation but we are taking the first steps;
we are introducing increased penalties for the forgery of documents and will step up our detection, harassment and disruptive action of forged i.d. card producers;
plans for re-issuing identity cards starting with the important group of males between 18 and 35 will be put to Executive Council probably in June. For practical reasons it will be 1982 before re-issuing can start, but the fact that all persons cards will be checked before re-issue will be given lots of early publicity and may deter the forgers and the starters from the communes;
we are looking at additional means by which we can ensure that the message is getting back to the communes that life in Hong Kong for illegal immigrants is so difficult as not to be worth contemplating. This message is already pretty widely disseminated. I was encouraged to see from some recent figures that whereas in mid 1980 33% of illegal immigrants had made more than one attempt to get into Hong Kong, in April the figures showed that only 9% had tried a second time. Admittedly these figures may cut both ways, but I believe they reflect the fact that it is recognised that it is now no longer worth trying very hard and certainly not very often to get here.
So the position is that after 7 months the change in policy has greatly reduced the numbers attempting to enter illegally. Even so an arrest rate averaging 38 a day still means that some evaders must be reaching the urban areas each day. We are maintaining our sweeps and operations in the urban areas and our guard up on the border and the perimeter. We are also planning a number of new and improved measures to tighten up our whole anti-illegal operation so as to achieve our long term aim of reducing illegal immigration to an absolute minimum. Some of this will take time, but we are not complacent about the extent of the problem or of the fact that we must base our plans on having to contain it for very many years.
Your ever
Ви
(L.M. Davies)
Secretary for Security
CONFIDENTIAL